Kevin Rowland, the new Dexys and what he’s learnt from life

2026-07-08

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We first saw Kevin in ‘77 wearing jodhpurs onstage with his art-punk band the Killjoys! He’s formed a new version of Dexys, made an album, starts a tour in October, and looks back here at central moments in his life, some recent ones so huge and affecting “that I put them to music” and they’ll be performed as a drama in the first half of these upcoming theatre shows. This touches - in vivid detail - on bands that inspired him, repaired relationships, a health crisis, what it took to be a singer in the first place and what’s requires now to put the show back o...

… memories of music before the Beatles

… playing Jim Reeves and Ricky Nelson in a social club band in 1975 “after the bingo”

… the touching shift of power in his relationship with his 102 year-old father: “he was like a child again, he needed me”

… Roxy Music on Top Of The Pops, “I couldn’t believe you could be avant garde AND commercial”

… life on the Top Rank circuit supporting the Specials: “you learnt not to play at an audience but play for them”

… making Searching For The Young Soul Rebels in ten days with producer Pete Wingfield dancing in the studio

… “Come On Eileen doesn’t belong to me anymore”

… the alarming spectacle of an ‘80s Hear & Now package tour and what it taught him

.. the song he wrote for his grandchildren (one of whom is 31)

… a possibly terminal diagnosis in 2024 and “like Wilko Johnson, the relief I felt”

… and the Tim Buckley song he just recorded without knowing who wrote it!

Order the new Dexys album ‘Love’ here: https://dexysofficial.lnk.to/love